Happened to me at the Bordon Enduro. Nut on spindle worked its way off. Lost cage part of pedal in the mud, had to ride the second half of the lap with just the spidle on the drive side. Horrible.

To make matters worse it was a 3ti eggbeater 🙁

Not seen it. There seens to plenty of new entrants to the energy foods market. Personally I am not sure about Pro Slam – wtf 😉

Btw, for 12 and 24 hour races you should consider Hammer Nutrition HEED. Very light on the palate and easy to stomache. Just started to become available over here now – its a US product. Its going to be my drink of choice for Mayhem and 24:12.

The Elete stuff is good you can't taste it at all. High 5 source is nice but very sticky. By day 3 or the Tour of Wessex last year I could barely get my bottle out of the cage – stuck fast with High 5.

Speaking of getting fuelling wrong. I rode La Marmotte last year and in my infinite wisdom used High 5 Energy Source Extreme (i.e. with caffeine) and Torq Guarana gels. 8hrs 43 mins from the start I crossed the line having consumed 10 torq gels and 8 bottles of High 5. The problem was I was so pumped full of caffeine I couldn't think straight or sit still. It took me 30 mins to translate the fact that D'Or meant I'd got a gold standard time.

I think the trick with cafeine is to use it sparingly. The Torq gels are brilliant but only every couple of hours – not every gel.

Njee – got there before me 😉

The general rule of thumb is that your body will only be able to process about 1gram of carbohydrate per 1kg of body mass per hour. So if you are 70kgs you can only process 70grams of carbs per hour. Anything in excess of this will be wasted and IME sits in your stomache and makes you feel decidedly ropey.

How you get your carbs is up to you but a combination of complex and simple carbs usually makes most sense. A gel has approximately (depending on brand) 30grams of carbs. So for a 70kg person they would be looking to make up the 40grams elsewhere. Energy drinks are usually the easiest way of doing so. Over 24hours however, I would use gels, bars, energy drinks and then whatever you feel like eating. At some point you will get sick of sweet foods and you'll be thankful then.

IME a strategy of just stuffing yourself with gels and energy drink is not a good one. Some consideration on how much you need (and can) consume will make things more tolerable.

ESI grips – chunky. Just started to be imported into the UK. Have some black ones on my race bike. One grip does both sides. Exactly the same diameter and but up real well against the shifter. Apply with water and no slipping 🙂

Its not as racey as it might come across. But we do receive generous sponsorship from Beyond/Specialized/RapidRacerProducts and to keep sponsors happy we need to race.

However, all members benefit from the sponsorship through subsidised kit/trips/entry and discounts whether they race or not. I would say there are about 20 or so regular racers and the rest ride for fun and the social side of things. As an example we had 43 riders out on the North Downs last weekend and the vast majority were not racers.

The one exception tends to be 24:12 which is a club favourite. Just about everyone racers/non racers alike loves this and we had teams in every category last year. A sea of 55 Beyond riders 🙂

It'll work just fine. I've used Schwalbe UST and Non UST tyres on 817s with no issues.

Check out WDMBC. 100+ members around the London, Slough, Reading type area. Regular weekend rides at Swinley/North Downs etc. Weekday/evening rides. Successful racing team if that sort of thing floats your boat. Pretty regular trips to Afan/Cwm Carn etc – we have a club van which helps.

£20 a year for subs but you can get it back through subsidised entry if you enter the club organised rides – Black Park, Bucks Off Road Sportive etc. Plus discount at Beyond Mountain Bikes in Cranleigh.

http://www.wdmbc.co.uk

Nah, unfortunately I work in the City so its impossible for me to get there in time.

atlaz – if you want to ride just turn up. They're a friendly bunch. Depending who goes they can be anything from a 2 hour mince to a 3 hour leg breaker. They probably err more on the former than the latter but there are some strong riders in attendance.

TBH I'd be more impressed if you rode it fixed fully rigid with two wheels 😉

Its going to be a nice build.

29er 355's are a very good choice. I run them tubeless at 22psi with Maxxis Crossmarks on my 29er SS and I am amazed by the amount of grip I get even in the winter with a summer tyre!

I run a EC70 bar with bar ends and while not that wide (580mm) its worked fine for me.

aracer – drop me a line (you've no email in your profile) if you want to sell the speedneedle.

njee20 – Member
Drink electrolyte drinks on the bike, Zym or Nuun work for me.

I agree.

You're cramping up. I had a similar thing on the Tour of Wessex last year. Chances are you were dehydrated and lacking important salts and minerals. I have used a few drops of Elete in my energy drink/water ever since and have never suffered again. Nick's suggestions are good too.

As an added bonus a few drops of Elete in water makes a good hangover cure 😉

I tend to have music on but it soon just ends up being background noise. You should be concentrating on good quality intervals. My current program focuses on improving my lactate threshold (LT). I started in November with:

2 x 20mins with a 5 minute rest between (warm up and warm down also) over the weeks I have increased to 2 x 21, 2 x 22 and currently 2 x 23. The rest period has remained the same. The idea is to get to 2 x 25 and then start reducing the rest period by a minute. So 2 x 25 with a 4 min rest, the 3 min rest…

The idea is to eventually be able to do a 1 x 50 with a consistent power output. These efforts do not need need to be all out. You will get most of the benefits by training at around 90% of LT/FT. It will be tough but not vomit inducing. My experience is that if you make it so hard you vomit you (may) begin to dread getting on the bike. Make it tough but achieveable and you'll be more likely to embrace it.

Btw, you don't need a powermeter. Think of it as perceived effort where one is spinning very easily and 10 is puking up. You should be around the 5/6 mark – 'hard' on the Borg scale.

+1 for the Niner clown bike. Rode one in the US this year and it was awesome. Better with the Niner carbon rigid fork though.

Heavier but in 26" Dialled Love/Hate?

http://www.puremountains.co.uk

Check out the review of the El Ejido Mountain Bike Marathon in MBR this month. The 'James' mentioned in the article is me 🙂 I've been with Pure Mountains 5 or so times and had a great time there. Tim and Jenny are brilliant hosts, guides and mountain bikers. Solidly XC though.

Just to qualify my comments somewhat. I have been running Schwalbe tyres in various configurations for the last few years. They are all pretty lightweight which will mean thinner sidewalls.

I have had a lot of success running standard tyres tubeless on ZTR Race 7000 and ZTR 355 rims with just yellow tape. However, I do think you need to run them at low pressures. Letting the sidewall deform over objects seems to stop them getting ripped. Despite being a thinner carcass, I rode with a RoRon on the front (Ralph rear) in a four day stage race in the US in October. It was super rocky and very technical and the tyre held up brilliantly.

A lot will depend on how hard you ride and your line choice. These tyres do require riding with some finess. The UST versions are indeed thicker and more bullet proof but considerably heavier and more expensive.

A lot of people use Schwalbe tyres for Xc racing. Typically Rocket Ron, Racing Ralph, Nobby Nic and on a very small number of occasions Furious Fred. Schwalbe have designed the range to be interchangable depending on conditions. So you can run RR front and rear or RoRon and RR if the conditions become a bit softer etc etc. Hopefully you get the idea.

I would say most people are running 2.1s. They tend to provide enough grip and are lighter than the 2.25s. Having said this the 2.1 RoRons come up a little small and 2.25 is better there. It is still a very light tyre as a 2.25.

Otherwise the NN is a pretty good tyre. I personally would consider a RR (2.1) rear and RoRon (2.25) up front as a fast rolling and grippy alternative but if you want a more general purpose tyre you can't go wrong with NN – just stick with 2.1s.

Yep. I knew it was him really. Can't be many people with a Artic-Premier RT kit with National Champs stripes can there 😉 I guess with the CX Nationals cancelled that was his ride. Apparently back in the day he used to ride for WDMBC. Way before my time though.

It was actually quite a laugh and on SS hard work. You didn't miss much though.

Sorry about the multiple replies. STW hung on me.

I don't think there is a much weight saving on the SLs over the normal version. The standard Martas are pretty light as it is.

I have some Pre 2008, Martas and Marta SLs. The difference is carbon lever blades on the SL and (I think) lighter rotors. I say think because I think I got the SL rotors on a set of Martas.

I think this is also true of post 2008 models and there is the SL Mag which has magnesium calipers.

From a performance perspective they work exactly the same.

I have some Pre 2008, Martas and Marta SLs. The difference is carbon lever blades on the SL and (I think) lighter rotors. I say think because I think I got the SL rotors on a set of Martas.

I think this is also true of post 2008 models and there is the SL Mag which has magnesium calipers.

From a performance perspective they work exactly the same.

I have some Pre 2008, Martas and Marta SLs. The difference is carbon lever blades on the SL and (I think) lighter rotors. I say think because I think I got the SL rotors on a set of Martas.

I think this is also true of post 2008 models and there is the SL Mag which has magnesium calipers.

From a performance perspective they work exactly the same.

Hora – it certainly wasn't that cold there…the big concern will be how much of muddy mess it becomes once all the snow melts. I wouldn't fancy the end of yoghurt pots much…and I suspect Ranmore will be unrideable as is want after heavy periods of rain.

Agreed though – fingers crossed for a return to normalty 🙂

Rode Ranmore, White Downs, Holmbury, Peaslake and returned via Leith Hill and Westcott. Took a lot longer than a typical ride but was 90% rideable if you stayed on the beaten tracks. More difficult over towards White Downs where less people had been.

BKB rode pretty well considering but Yoghurt Pots was pretty much unrideable. Didn't bother with Telegraph as we figured it would be much the same. Quite a lot of people out considering 🙂

Btw, did I spy Jody Crawford in full National Champ regalia at Peaslake?

I think the mounts are designed to break on impact. Hence why they use a nylon bolt. I guess the idea is that it causes less damage to the structural integrity of the helmet. Btw, It is worth using a lanyard with the Joystick. If you do catch it on a branch you could be a mile away before you know its missing – assuming you are using a strong main light of course 😉

At one of the Exposure lights events I was given a helmet mount for free after forgetting mine. I also saw Rory give a guy a new bar mount for a MaxxD because the old one was getting a bit stiff. Now that's good customer service 🙂

32×17 on my RIG for all duties. I found 32×18 a bit spinny on the flat. 32×17 on the North Downs and Swinley seems fine but I do have to get out of the saddle and attack the hills a bit more.

Both my Exposure Lights – MaxxD and Joystick Maxx have been faultless. Exposure service is second to none and you can always find them at races should you have any problems. Wouldn't buy anything else.

I'm headed up there on Sunday. Rode last Sunday and while BKB was fine, Pitch Hill side was very icy – particularly immediately out of Peaslake. Yoghurt Pots also had some patches of black ice and was super sketchy in some of the corners. The climby bit on Telegraph was also not much fun.

That's without this weeks deluge 🙂

Tis true…however, Spesh UK are prone to copying the US specs too.

'SL3 Features' details an "incredibly stiff oversized BB" for the frameset. However what you get in the UK is a threaded 68mm bb instead. It does actually say threaded on the technical specs page which makes it somewhat confusing.

Back on topic. Difference saddles for different folks seems to be the trend. Try some out before you buy if you can.

The Toupe Carbon is shown on a few US websites but availability is zero. I heard there were production issues and it was to be introduced in 2011 instead. Hopefully at a more palatable price point too 😉 In the meantine that new Toupe looks nice. 8)

I initially had the same problem. It does take quite a yank to get it off. Don't be afraid to twist it anticlockwise and pull like hell. I recall using the tip of a flat bladed screwdriver to help it on its way.

+1 for the Phenom SL. I ran the Toupe on mtbs for a while but kept snapping off the plastic bits. I think its changed slightly for 2010?

There's about 23grams of carbohydrates in 50grams of PSP22. As you point out it is suppose to be mixed with 500ml or water. So 46grams in a litre.

Your body can only cope with around 1gram of carbohydrate per kg of body mass per hour. So if you are 70kg you wont be able to process more than 70grams an hour. How you get this 70grams is up to you but by watering down the psp (and consuming 1 litre per hour of fluid) you would get as little as 12 grams of carbs from your drink. Not much really.

This is more relevant for racing but for all day or intensive rides its important too. I find mixing drinks to the correct strength works for me. Others I know mix them somewhat weaker and get carbs from other sources – energy bars, gels, fig roles, lager 😉 etc

That'll be pretty sweet. Chuck a NU stem and seatpost on it and it'll come up pretty light. Look forward to seeing it when it arrives and is built up. Fingers crossed for no duty 😉

Need to strip down my GT Zaskar Carbon and get some pics taken for the classifieds – this weekend if it snows.

Might see you Nick. Need to pop in and remove that white bike from the wall before someone else does 😉 I hear you got a bargain on a Hasa?

Beyond Mountain Bikes in Cranleigh? Its about 25 miles from Kingston. Stocks a good range of Scott, Trek and Specialized bikes and some hard to find parts. There is also a weekly night ride and monthly ND ride if you were interested.

njee used to work there but don't let that put you off 😉

http://www.beyondmountainbikes.com

You would need a Speen adapter. You can get them from here the German uberblingsters here

More efficient that the roller device. They have a version for most front mechs. Its fairly common on weightweenie hard tails which require a top pull front mech.